I went from a Nikon D70s (6mp) to a Nikon D200 (12mp but heavy on battery) to my now used and much loved D300. However I still have my first "decent" camera a Voigtlander Vito CL 35mm camera which I had new way back in 1966 and still perfect apart from a little dust in between the lens easily removed I guess . Only took less than a dozen reels of film with it so its still like new, even the clockwork timer is in working order as seen in video. The top has a light sensor and in it an arm which senses light and another with a ring on the end. All one did was get the arm into the center of the ring and that was the exposure set. no batteries needs for this.
No remote control back then, the flash was from the Rollie flashgun which at the time was on of the top flashguns one could get.
short video of it working via clockwork timer
So my next move was into video work
First was my samson 35 mm video the blue one at the back
then moved on to Panasonic with the HD-SD600 on the right
then the Panasonic HC-X900M on left.
Then one seems to win photo comps and get tripods or monopods. I have given away a couple.